it’s a massive important document for a business owner or a manager – but why?
Wikipedia explains Operations Manual as
well if you are seeing it for the first time, it’s quite a lot to digest, let me try to make it simple for you
Operations manual is an Encyclopedia for your company or business
it serves as a tool, provides you and your team the direction to function smoothly, more importantly guides and controls your team!
It reminds you and your employees on
- how to get the work done,
- contains the standard operating procedures,
- your organizations hierarchy,
- contact details for key personnel and emergency procedures etc.
Just think of it as a knowledge base where all your work requirements are documented,
you and your team will follow it to complete the work.
Why is it important?
Imagine managing large teams, your team shall have tons of questions every single day to complete the tasks.
You nor your team leaders, supervisors will have the time or the patience to keep answering the same questions a million times, this guide will serve as their go to document (similar to employee handbook)
helping you to focus on what you need to do…
In-fact you can refer to this document to run your operations….
Based on my experience managing large BPM operations, here is a comprehensive list of information to be documented in an operations manual (this list can further increase or decrease depending upon the nature of your work)
Investing your time building a solid Operations manual at the beginning of your project will smoothen your entire operations long term and reduce repetitive tasks!
Conclusion
Operations manual provides you and your team the direction to function smoothly and sets the culture and foundation from the very start you operate!
For SME’s/team leaders who are aspiring to become a PMP or an existing manager facing hurdles, my personal recommendation is to study for PMP Certification this course provides you the foundation on
- People – soft skills required to run the projects smoothly
- Process – technical aspects
- Business environment – connection between projects and organizational strategy
personally, this course helped me to improve my operations and my understanding towards the above foundations better.